Villagers Plan Lawsuit After Shooting Leads to Schoolhouse Standoff

Local residents and police gather at a monastery in Mandalay Division’s Nyaung Wun village on Thursday night to negotiate the release of police officers trapped in a local school. (Photo: Facebook / Ko Sein Than)

MANDALAY — Residents of Nyaung Wun village in Mandalay Division say they plan to take legal action against police here who fired into a crowd during a confrontation on Thursday in which three villagers and a police officer were injured.

“We are now planning to sue those policemen at the Sint Gu Township court,” said Tin Naing, a villager. “We want justice for what happened here. We believe there will be rule of law and the police who opened fired will be punished for what they have done.”

On Thursday, dozens of police officers were trapped for hours inside a village school after angry villagers surrounded the building in the shootings’ aftermath. They were eventually allowed to leave the school unharmed, following negotiations at the local monastery late on Thursday evening between village elders and authorities from the Mandalay divisional police.

“The deputy police officer from the Mandalay divisional police office promised that he would take action against the police who fired into the crowd with live rounds,” said U Pannita, a Buddhist monk who witnessed the negotiations. “The villagers handed back the police who were trapped in the school and also told the police that they would sue them to get justice.”

Villagers said negotiations produced several promises from the police, including that they not act violently in the future; take care of the medical expenses of those injured; repair damages to the school compound resulting from the standoff; and take action against the officer who ordered police to fire on the crowd.

The injured woman, San Kyin Nu, has had to have a steel plate inserted into the leg through which a bullet passed and is currently hospitalized at a hospital in the city of Mandalay.

Two other villagers reportedly suffered minor injuries in the altercation on Thursday, and a police officer was wounded when he was struck by a stone hurled from the crowd.

The violence stemmed from a land dispute in the village, with local residents claiming the military had confiscated thousands of acres of their farmland in the 1980s. Protests against the land seizure have been taking place since June.

Thein Sein government is seen as enemy like relic of military dictatorship. USDP needs to see its real image from incident. Instead of trusting the government, people see it as traitors which is on the throne just to squeeze people and troublemaker.

Regime is still oppressing the people by using these thugs. People are turning against the regime since they feel enough is enough. This evil regime which pretends a real democratic one is our enemy number one which blocks us from entering into democratic society.

I have just received an appeal by Human Rights per E-mail to join the protest in this case. This letter gives further details.
.1) the land is in a village close to Singu. It was fertile farmland.
.2) it was seized by the army in the 1990. But the army did not use it.
.3) no compensation was paid.
.4) Instead of returning the land to the farmers – which was recommended by the government – the army leased it for 60 years to a CHINESE OWNED company to plant sugar cane there.
.5) When the villagers tried to get back their land, there was massive restance by th local authorities, including police men firing live bullets on unarmed farmers.

What kind of country has Myanmar become???

The Myanmar Tatmadaw and the local police are defending the right of Chinese citizens to grow crops in the heart land of Myanmar, on land taken away without compensation from local farmers???
IS THE COUNTRY RULED BY CHINA???

This is shameful for the army and for the local authorities.
They should apologize and obey the law. Stop oppressing simple folks.